BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 9.5 x 11.5 in. / 192 pgs / 120 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 1/31/2012 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2011 p. 178
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781935202691TRADE List Price: $49.95 CDN $60.00
AVAILABILITY Not available
"High heels are innately dramatic; couple this with the fact that they are one of the most persistently important signifiers of femininity, and they become the ultimate cinema costume accessory. High heels readily represent different feminine archetypes, from the domestic, to the fashionable, to the dangerous, seductive feminine such as the femme fatale. Frequently—but certainly not exclusively—high heels enhance a female character’s glamorous appeal. Studies of film costume (especially women’s costumes) often alight on the symbolic value of clothes: that, as feminist film scholar Jane Gaines has articulated, costumes tell the woman’s story. High heels can, in this way, be flexible signifiers, depending on the characters they adorn and the outfits they complement. The femme fatale’s sharp weapon-like heels borrow the accoutrements of the fetish parlour, but equally, the housewife of 1950s Hollywood melodramas wears the high heels of conformity and conventionality and Grace Kelly the delicate footwear of Dior’s New Look mannequins."
Stella Bruzzi, excerpted from the chapter "Heels on Screen."
GOLIGA
High Heels
Fashion, Femininity & Seduction
Published by Goliga Edited by Ivan Vartanian. Text by Valerie Steele, Tim Blanks, Philip Delamore, Stella Bruzzi. Conversations with Manolo Blahnik, Nicholas Kirkwood, James Crump.
The high-heeled shoe conjures self-assured allure and erotic intoxication like no other item of women's wear. Just recently the high heel has undergone a massive resurgence in popularity, in part reinventing itself through an overt invoking of fetish, with which the heel has of course always had some relationship. Built around a selection of images of heels from contemporary photography, High Heels: Fashion, Femininity and Seduction explores the confluence of art, fashion and fetish in the cult of high heels swooping down the fashion show runways and city streets everywhere. Illustrated with works from photographers such as Guy Bourdin, Juergen Teller, Bettina Rheims, Marilyn Minter, Tim Walker, Steven Klein, David Lachapelle and Vanessa Beecroft, among many others, High Heels also includes several important texts: an essay by Valerie Steele on the industry forces behind high-heel design; Tim Blanks of Style.com interviews Manolo Blahnik and Nicholas Kirkwood; Philip Delamore describes the technological developments behind the extreme contours of recent shoe design; Stella Bruzzi on high heels, gender, and representation in film; and an introduction by Ivan Vartanian, in conversation with James Crump, discusses the high heel as a vehicle for discussing a fetish for photography in general. High Heels is a visual odyssey through the powerful ideas of beauty, danger and seduction that the high heel evokes.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Harper's Bazaar
Véronique Hyland
Famed shoe designers Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik have each inspired a cult following of customers who consider their creations the highest art. Their work has been treated as such in High Heels, which is a treasure trove of fashion images by such top photographers as Guy Bourdin, Juergen Teller, Vanessa Beecroft, Marilyn Minter, and Camilla Akrans and spotlights the next generation of chic cobblers, including Nicholas Kirkwood.
"The meaning of any particular item of clothing, such as a high heel shoe, is not inherent in the object itself. It’s entirely something that’s constructed by people in the society around it. So in the past, high heel shoes carried very clear associations of elevated status and were initially worn by men as well as women. By the middle of the eighteenth century, however, they’d acquired to a considerable extent their contemporary meaning, which is primarily a sign of erotic femininity and, to some extent, simply
femininity in general.
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FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11.5 in. / 192 pgs / 120 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 ISBN: 9781935202691 PUBLISHER: Goliga AVAILABLE: 1/31/2012 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available
Published by Goliga. Edited by Ivan Vartanian. Text by Valerie Steele, Tim Blanks, Philip Delamore, Stella Bruzzi. Conversations with Manolo Blahnik, Nicholas Kirkwood, James Crump.
The high-heeled shoe conjures self-assured allure and erotic intoxication like no other item of women's wear. Just recently the high heel has undergone a massive resurgence in popularity, in part reinventing itself through an overt invoking of fetish, with which the heel has of course always had some relationship. Built around a selection of images of heels from contemporary photography, High Heels: Fashion, Femininity and Seduction explores the confluence of art, fashion and fetish in the cult of high heels swooping down the fashion show runways and city streets everywhere. Illustrated with works from photographers such as Guy Bourdin, Juergen Teller, Bettina Rheims, Marilyn Minter, Tim Walker, Steven Klein, David Lachapelle and Vanessa Beecroft, among many others, High Heels also includes several important texts: an essay by Valerie Steele on the industry forces behind high-heel design; Tim Blanks of Style.com interviews Manolo Blahnik and Nicholas Kirkwood; Philip Delamore describes the technological developments behind the extreme contours of recent shoe design; Stella Bruzzi on high heels, gender, and representation in film; and an introduction by Ivan Vartanian, in conversation with James Crump, discusses the high heel as a vehicle for discussing a fetish for photography in general. High Heels is a visual odyssey through the powerful ideas of beauty, danger and seduction that the high heel evokes.
